Tried my new toy...Echo 750 backpack

Well I picked up my new backpack today. Tried it for maybe 15 minutes in my own yard, (raining and wet leaves). Here are my first impressions of it(was not able to demo one because they had none in stock..my buddies in the business have old Echo backpacks as do I so I just took all the good comments here on this model and the Red Max and made my decision.). THese are my gut reactions as compared to my expectations for the machine:
1. much quieter and lighter
2. drinks more gas than I expected
3. glad I got the throttle on the left side (not the tube throttle)
4. powerful, but honestly not as powerful as I expected based on the rave reviews I see here on LS (but the leaves were wet)
5. very smooth running
6. shoulder straps need more padding as they dig in a little...will have to find a way to add some foam up there

While I barely gave it a workout, I'm satisfied with it but not thrilled ....I suspect when the leaves are drier and I have the time give it a good workout, that I will be very happy I bought it...I'd better be for $500. Oh, and I'm sure this thing will do quite nicely on small snow accumulations...one of the reasons I needed a new backpack as we do a number of commercial bldg entrances.

What impressed me the most was how quiet and smooth running it is (yes I know, those 2 factors dont move leaves do they)

speaking of breaking it in...should I baby this thing for a little while?? if so for how long? I didnt baby it today so I hope that wasn't a mistake...I read thru the manual (too quickly...my wife says that all men think manuals are for women and idiots) and I didnt see anything in there about keeping the throttle restricted for awhile

it will suck down alot of gas for the next few hours then it will get to its normal gas intake.same as the power the more you run it breaking in that new engine the more powerful it will get.when i got my new exmark lazer this year it sucked down gas like crazy for the first month or so.i got 4 hours out of one tank of fuel.now she runs almost the whole day on a tank of fuel.my 750T runs for about 2 hours now which i think is pretty good

my dealer didn't tell me anything about babying it on break-in, but i ran mine at half throttle for a little while then went to WOT for a few minutes, then back down to half and then idle'd it before killing it.

Mike, i guess my 750 still ain't broke in then, i've got about 15-20 hours on it now i think. I'm still running at about 1hr 10min per tank. I didn't note how long it ran on a tank when i first got it cause i picked it up in the summer.

I don't know what size "older Echos" you had, but I came off of a LESCO/Echo PB 4200. There was a NIGHT and DAY difference here. While a backpack will NEVER compare with a walkbehind blower, the 650 fairs well as its much more maneuverable than a Little Wonder.

Are you using ALL the tubes? For heavy wet leaves you should. For mowing season blowing clippings, I take the bottom tube off.

Remember, the tube is blowing DOWN at a 45 degree angle, not perpendicular like a walkbehind blower. Don't try to adapt or buy the curved tip for it. You will have a sore arm as the tube wants to simply blow rearward.

yes I had all the tubes on...and I;m not at all disapointed with its power...like I said it was raining pretty good and things were soaked. I was just commenting on what I expected based on what many of the guys here have said about these big boys. Heck I was expecting it to blow over a car based on some of the comments!!!

And I have to say, that the commercial Echo shrednvac that I also have is no slouch when used as a blower...so I'm comparing it to that machine as well

Get a curved tube end for it...you won't regret it when you're blowing out beds (I have curved ends on all 6 of my Redmax and Echo blowers. With the curved end, you are in essence pushing away the leaves/debris instead of pushing it into the ground.

Trust your Joysee bud on this. One of the best things I have done in 9 years of leaf clean ups btw.

Actually, I'm a millionaire. I'm only in this for the exercise...yeah sure.